BILLINGS — A new coffee and brewery business in the Heights is bringing a new community gathering place to the area.
105 Coffee and Brewery is located at 815 Yellowstone River Road in Billings Heights and opened last week. Founder Travis Zeilstra was born and raised in the Heights and wanted to bring a much-needed community gathering place that he felt was severely missing.
Watch the video of this story below:
“The original intent was to create a community space located in the Heights for people to congregate and have conversations," said Zeilstra. "It's not that the other coffee shops aren't doing that, but our focus is just to have a community inside our venue.”
105, named after the Heights 59105 zip code, is the newest addition to a growing coffee scene but puts a twist on the traditional coffee and soda shop. The business also will offer a selection of in-house brewed beers starting in April. With the capacity to brew up to 10 beers, it will be the only brewery located in the Heights.
“It's probably slightly foreign to people, but to me, it makes total sense," said Zeilstra. “People like to have conversation over coffee. People like to have a conversation over beer, and why not you put it in the same venue?"
Once beers are offered, their closing hours to serve will extend from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. In the summer, the patio space will be open, and despite not making food on the premises, the outside space allows for food truck access.
Zeilstra has over 20 years of experience in the world of brewing. After graduating from Skyview High School, he moved to Portland for culinary school before moving back to Montana to become the head brewer at the Montana Brewing Company. He then started his own brewery in Wyoming and has returned to his old neighborhood to establish 105.
“This is the third brewery ownership business that I've started, and hopefully the final one," said Zeilstra. “The Heights Brewery 105 Brewing plan has been in the works for several years, and we're excited to be here finally."
Heights residents Kelsey Clark and Morgan Reif visited the coffee shop for the first time on Thursday with friends and were excited for the newest business that is just a short drive from home.
"I feel like most of everything on the Heights is on the other side of Main Street, so to have something here where there's actually a lot of homes and a lot of people out there in this area, it's going to be really accessible and easy for people to get to," said Clark.
“There's not much like this in the Heights. We need this," added Reif. “I'm really excited to come to the patio when we get some nice weather."
While there is seemingly no shortage of coffee shops in Billings, Zeilstra said he is not worried about oversaturating the market, since their approach will be the first for Billings.
“I think the oversaturation is a valid concern. We're just going to strive to have great hospitality, and hopefully, that just creates some more positive feedback from our customers," said Zeilstra. "I think we've started off very well, and I'm excited for the future.”
For Heights residents, 105 Coffee and Brewing is a welcome addition.
“I'm so proud of the owners that they saw this vision and wanted to bring this to the Heights because often we don't get that. The West End gets all of it, and it's nice that we have some people that care about the Heights area," said Clark.
